For the next 15 hours (as of the time of this writing) Darksiders II is on sale! Usually a healthy $50, today it is a mighty 66% off, making it only $17. That is so cheap, I’ve already bought it for two friends that I know wanted it. I am getting Christmas sorted, friends.

None of the DLC appears to be on sale, unfortunately, the ‘season pass’ costing upwards of the game itself at this point. There is, however, a deal for the Prima Official Strategy Guide, if you’re a collector of such things, or for some reason can’t just Google yourself a walkthrough. Alone, the guide is also at 66% off, making it just shy of $12, or you can buy the game and the Prima Guide together for also 66%, making it $27.20.

If you’re on the look out for a new game to tide you over on the weekend, maybe give Darksiders II a try. It’s got a metascore of 81/100 apparently, but at this point, it’s cheap enough that you won’t be too mad if you end up hating it (though reading our review first might be a good idea).

Source: Steam

When Darksiders II released back in August, it was topping the sales charts in the US for that month. Despite this, industry analyst Michael Pachter has said that the game is struggling to break even. “August release Darksiders II has sold an estimated 1 million units to date, and appears to be struggling to approach its 2 million units break-even threshold,” he said in a note to investors.

THQ have restructured themselves in recent months to become a more streamlined company since they first began having financial troubles. In their first fiscal quarter of this year, they were back in the black. Pachter, however, believes things could still be tight for THQ in coming days.

“Darksiders II‘s performance and a history of game delays and cancellations leaves us skeptical that THQ can successfully execute its turnaround strategy, which centers on a streamlined release slate. If any of THQ’s Q4 13 releases are late, liquidity is likely to be tight by next summer unless either Homefront 2 or the Patrice Désilets game are released by then.”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Vigil Games and THQ have formally announced the next DLC pack for Darksiders II, which was teased last week. The new pack arrives on October 30 on all platforms, although PlayStation 3 owners outside the US will have to wait an extra day. We don’t have local pricing yet, but it’ll be around the USD$10 mark (800 MS Points).

As for what the pack contains, it adds a whole new gameplay zone called the Shadow Lands, which features two dungeons, new enemies, secrets, and unique legendary loot. Apparently aimed at high level players, the Abyssal Forge boasts the “hardest enemies and puzzles yet” as it pits you against the Abyssal Forge, a living machine built by a madman, which has constructed a huge army and now threatens the world.

Source: Darksiders II

Vigil’s announcement last week in response to complaints from PC gamers about missing features in Darksiders II has borne fruit, with details being released on the game’s blog about what exactly the upcoming patch will contain.

“Your feedback is incredibly important to us, so we have been working around the clock to address issues that some of you have been having, as well as adding features you have requested,” writes Vigil.

“We are working on fixes for a number of bugs which can potentially block progression that have come to our attention, while also exploring adding additional features you have been asking for. This work includes vsync updates, improved shadow map resolution, X-axis options and additional keyboard mapping options (amongst other community requests). We hope to roll out a number of patches to address these issues in the weeks to come.”

Our Darksiders II review made particular note of the PC release’s lack of platform-specific features.

Source: Darksiders II

THQ’s Mathew Everett has responded to complaints about Darksiders II’s lack of PC-friendly features. The publisher representative told the Darksiders community that both he and Vigil’s Jay Fitzloff genuinely believed the game would contain full .config files and proper mouse and keyboard support when these features were promised during a pre-launch preview event.

“Unfortunately, especially at the end of the development cycle, sometimes things change at the last minute, and this was one of them. This puts us in an uncomfortable spot as we were acting on the best information we had at the time, and it has turned out not to be in the final game (at this point). Since it was always the intention to implement these features, as I type this, the development team is checking to see what items can get added into the game. While I can’t promise what can be done, I can promise we are working with the proper teams and have expressed the importance of including them in a patch,” he said.

Everett has apologised for giving inaccurate information, describing it as an unintentional error. “We are doing everything we can to address it. We will circle back when we have more information,” he promised.

Our Darksiders II review made particular note of the PC release’s lack of platform-specific features.

Source: Darksiders II Community Forum

Generally, when you’re buying a PC port of a console game, you’re doing it for one of two reasons: you don’t own that console and the game is so amazing that you need to have it anyway, or the port offers an excellent selection of graphical options and upgrades. Maybe down the line, the ability to mod the game in weird and wonderful ways will come into play, too.

For Darksiders II, right off the bat, we can eliminate the second reason. The PC port offers only the ability to change your screen resolution. The visuals are otherwise identical to its console counterparts. That, however, is not the greatest sin of Darksiders II.

There are shockingly few strong action-RPGs of the Darksiders variety on the PC, likely for the same reason that there are so few fighting games: human hands don’t bend on a keyboard the way they’re needed to in order to pull off the button combos so central to these games. It’s uncomfortable and clumsy, and as Darksiders II has no option to customize key layouts (update: tehwes points out in the comments that you can un-intuitively do it from an in-game menu apparently, just not the main one) and the default key settings are unintuitive, your best bet is to plug in a gamepad or Xbox360 controller. It’s not completely unplayable with a keyboard and mouse, but it is pretty close.

Assuming that you’re now looking at Darksiders II for reason number one – you’ve only got a PC and you think you’ll like the game – then Darksiders II may actually provide you with many hours of enjoyment. The aesthetics are colourful and exaggerated, and shift greatly in tone after the first major part of the game, and while the story threads that are intended to push you from dungeon to dungeon are little more than whisps, the dungeons themselves are full of clever platform puzzles and really test your spatial-awareness. They’re also lovingly designed and crafted — visual details and gameplay clues are everywhere, and an intelligent layout means you rarely retrace your steps.

Combat is fast and responsive, but lacks some variety. Most advanced moves are timing-based and other than the abilities you get from skill-points, which all have a Wrath cost associated with them and as such can’t really become a core part of your combos, they’re store-bought — making them feel optional and mostly unnecessary. Instead, loot is used to spice up the swordplay (or scytheplay?), which does a fine job but never delivers that Diablo moment where your jaw drops at the sheer numbers.

There’s a certain formula that Darksiders II follows which it stoically refuses to break. For lack of a better word, we’ll call it the Zelda formula. Essentially, it’s the “you need the magical pebble of Steve the Merciless – it’s in that dungeon over there” formula. There’s a moment towards the middle of the game where you’re sent to fight in an arena. Sweet, sounds like it’s time for some epic boss battles, right?

Nope! It’s a series of three mini-dungeons to find some dumb crystals. Zelda games follow the same formula, but break it up with a richly fleshed-out world full of silly and serious side-quests and mini-games. Darksiders II only has its combat, for better or worse. If you’re alright with that, then absolutely check it out.

Good:

• Clever, efficient dungeons.
• An appealing and unifying art-style.
• Swift, frantic combat.

Bad:

• Nearly unplayable without a gamepad.
• Highly formulaic. Though if you really love the formula, this could be excellent!

Darksiders II is available on Steam for $49.99.

The first all gameplay trailer for Darksiders II is out, called “Death Comes for All”. It is pretty impressive and shows some nasty looking beasties, not least of all one who looks an awful lot like Cthulhu (who, I am pretty sure, is not part of the traditional Good v Evil mythology). Anyway, check out the trailer below and let us know what you think!

It’s no secret that THQ has been struggling with their finances as of late, so I was extremely interested to get my hands on the game they’re pinning a lot of their hopes on – specifically, Darksiders 2. The first entry into the series had you playing as “War,” one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and in this iteration, you are his brother “Death”. Naturally, Death can wield not one, but two scythes as well as having the ability to pick up special weapons such as hammers or axes during the game.

The demo we were given to play through is really just the beginning of the game, as noted by one of the development staff, and thus the challenge was really quite minimal. That said, this game makes you feel like a professional MLG player. War was a devastating damage-dealer, and Death is more of the same, with a wide array of razor-sharp, lightning-quick attacks. The two scythes, in unison, can dismember an enemy in seconds. If you don’t come out of Darksiders 2 feeling like a proper, powerful demigod, then there’s probably something wrong with you.

Graphically, however, Darksiders 2 wasn’t the most impressive game. The build we were given to play with was the final product, which means you’ll be playing this build yourself upon release and, honestly, this is worrisome. Various textures and details of the game felt blocky and unrefined. Generally, a series’ iterations look better and better as time moves along, but this looks almost exactly the same as the original Darksiders. While that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it definitely isn’t a high point.

Near the end of our thirty-minute demo, and after a trek through icy caverns with frosted walls, we ended up at the first boss battle of sorts. In an attempt to keep spoilers to a minimum, we’ll just say that we ended up fighting a clone of Death’s brother, War, and, even despite the unimpressive graphics, the battle itself was a fantastic display of the game’s meaty combat mechanics. It also provided a great opportunity to contrast how different the two characters’ fighting styles were. I felt compelled by it in a way I haven’t been since the end of Metal Gear Solid 4, and I’m still thinking about it even now.

The platforming sections of Darksiders 2 also merit a mention, and like the original Darksiders, there wasn’t much to it. It’s primarily a hack-and-slash title, so this isn’t too much of a black mark, but it’s the same as my gripe concerning this game’s visuals: there’s been no progress. I feel like I am almost playing a mod of Darksiders: the same game in a different world, with a different set of skills.

Where does this leave Darksiders 2 on the scale, then? The positive side of me wants to say that ‘more of the same’ is not necessarily a bad thing when the original was so well receieved, but the other half is disappointed at the developers for not pushing the envelope more. When Darksiders came out a couple of years ago, it was praised for being its “own” game, taking matters into its own hands rather than following meekly in the footsteps of God of War. This entry, however, seems to employ the “safe” tactic. While I – like many other Darksiders fans – will probably look into buying this on launch day, there are also a good number of people I would advise to rent the game first.